


Permission to Fly

by meggannn



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Drama, F/M, Family, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-12-27
Updated: 2008-12-27
Packaged: 2017-10-13 17:17:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/139706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meggannn/pseuds/meggannn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Toph still has one last battle to fight, and it doesn't matter how much earth or metal she can alter, because no amount of bending will help her avoid reuniting with her parents.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Permission to Fly

The letters came pouring in from everywhere. Congratulatory letters, messages of countless thanks and appreciation, letters describing stories of how the Fire Nation had tore families and villages apart – and how, now that it was all over, everything could be fine again. Everything _would_ be fine again. Because they had helped make it that way.

Most were from the large Earth Kingdom, a fair amount from the Northern Water Tribe and a few from the Southern – and some from the Fire Nation, surprisingly. A number of people, however small, declared that they had been tired of living under the reign of Fire Lord Ozai were fairly pleased with how the war had turned out.

Some messages, of course, were quite nasty: ones from loyal firebenders promising death to the Avatar for Ozai's defeat, and swearing revenge would be served. Zuko took all of these in stride, occasionally flaring up – quite literally – at a few of the direct challenges and accusations, but otherwise ignoring the lot of them and tightening security around the palace until not even Momo could sneak in without documents or identification.

Aang didn't like to read any of the letters; he said that the ones praising them – specifically him, as many were addressed only to the Avatar – were too kind, too flattering. His face would turn red and Katara would swoon, say he was adorable, and then the two would run off together to do who-knew-what.

Katara felt the same way. She didn't blush, however, and was the only one to suggest that they respond to each of these letters individually. But after a week, it became obvious that there were too many coming into even consider that suggestion; there were just too many people with too many stories and thanks and too much gratitude that it wouldn't be even possible to know where to begin contacting them all.

Sokka was ecstatic. He picked out all of the letters that mentioned him specifically – some describing him as "that long and lean fellow," "the boy with the boomerang," "that young man with the bad jokes" (which he scowled at but accepted nonetheless) – and he had taken up the habit of rereading them all rather frequently.

Many of the letters did not mention Suki at all. Some did, however, reference the Kyoshi Warriors, and thus, being their leader, she often swelled with pride and congratulated her team as a whole.

Toph ignored the lot of them. She didn't much care for thanks or gratitude or the hey-party-ho! attitude everyone seemed to have adopted over the past few weeks. She'd had enough of those fancy dinner parties when she lived with her parents. She didn't need to go to another that honored her service in a hundred-year-old war that would have ended without her, anyway.

Sure, she was the greatest earthbender in the world. She knew that; and after the war ended, everybody else did, too.

Even Sokka knew that. He knew she had invented metalbending, and occasionally could even sandbend rather well, if she felt like it. He knew she was amazing.

Apparently Suki was better.

Toph scowled and picked at the grass beneath her feet. She was sitting in a courtyard, and there was a small pond in front of her with a rather large tree behind her. From the sound of it, there were ducks milling around in the water, squawking and splashing and occasionally getting her wet. She ignored them.

She figured it was perfect, really. Aang and Katara had each other, whoop-dee-do for them; Zuko had Mai, so they could go be depressing and mopey together, too; and Sokka had Suki, because they were the same age and neither of them were benders. They could understand each outer, surrounded by a group of extraordinary people that could do extraordinary things.

Toph didn't feel all that extraordinary. Not anymore. What was the point, she figured, if no one noticed how special you were?

Her parents hadn't noticed. Aang had noticed, kind of, and that had been nice. Yet it felt as though she was constantly fighting for it, for the recognition, the appreciation, even among her own friends.

She knew it was childish to Suki. It was petty and childish. But then, Toph was only twelve; she figured she could be as petty and childish as she wanted, if only for another year or so. She had good reason to be. Didn't she?

"Having fun moping while everyone else is inside at the party?"

A figure sat beside her in the grass; a figure that seemed a little awkward with heavy clothing and long robes. The person slouched his shoulders a bit, facing the pond with a heavy posture.

Yeah. Definitely Zuko.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she replied.

"If you say so." He moved; he was reaching inside his cloak for something, she could tell. "A letter came for you."

"I don't care about those stupid letters," she growled, crossing her arms and placing them on her raised knees. "They all say the same thing."

"If all of those letters said the same thing as this one, you'd have bigger problems," Zuko drawled.

"Well, it's not like I can _read_ it," Toph snapped. "So what does it say that is just so freaking important?"

"It's from your parents."

She could feel herself stiffen.

"Or, at least, I think it is. Your surname is Bei Fong, right?"

"Yes." Her answer came out tight and cold.

Zuko did not speak for a moment. "Do you want to hear it?"

Toph wasn't sure which of the responses mulling around in her head would sound the politest. She didn't trust her voice, anyway, so in the end she ended up only nodding slowly, and hoping for the best.

Zuko opened the letter, took a breath, and began to read.

* * *

"You'll be fine," Katara reassured her. "It's not like they're about to whisk you off back to your home in the Earth Kingdom. They can't do that."

"Technically, they can," Zuko pointed out dryly from the doorway. "They're still her parents. And she's still not old enough to be living on her own."

"She's old enough to be living with us, though," Aang said from her left. "I mean, she's been doing it for… how long now? At least, what, five months?"

"Something like that." Katara's voice came from directly in front of her as Toph felt the cloth around her waist tighten slightly. "There. You should be good now."

"It's almost time," Sokka noticed from the other side of the room. Toph could feel that Suki was with him. "Should we be leaving?"

"I think that'd be best," Katara said. "Unless you want us here, Toph?"

At this point, Toph could have said that she wanted them there, because there was no use denying it: she did feel comforted by her friends' presence. She did enjoy it when they backed her up, congratulated her – it gave her a sense of pride and accomplishment that her parents never had, because they had taken one look at her disability and determined that she was worth little to nothing. She was blind, and she was a _girl_. Hardly grounds for any congratulations or praise.

She did want them there. **  
**

Then again, she could also prove that she was her own individual, that she could survive by herself, and that she didn't need anyone standing next to her and holding her hand. Because she was strong. And she didn't need anybody. Especially one of them apparently didn't need her.

"No, I'm fine," she heard herself saying. "I'll be all right. You guys get going; I'll talk to you after it's all over."

She could imagine Katara was biting her lip, and that Aang was sending her a worried expression. She could tell that Zuko might be quietly watching her with a solemn gaze, that she could feel so clearly, even from the other side of the room.

And she could imagine Sokka still too distracted by Suki to care about her anymore.

Toph watched with her feet as they all left the room, leaving her behind.

* * *

"Toph." Her mother's voice sounded so relieved, so careful, that for a moment the young earthbender wondered exactly how much her departure from home had affected her parents. "My baby…"

"Toph, are you all right?" That was her father's voice, coming from someone that was sitting in front of her, to the right of her mother. It was stiff, and formal. It was what she had been hearing her entire life, whenever she was told she would be doing something else, something _safer_ , for a girl in her position.

It wasn't a voice she had wanted to hear again.

"I'm fine." Her own voice sounded as stiff as her father's, rigid and stale. Why had she agreed to this?

"You had us worried, Toph," he said with a disapproving tone. "It has disappointed me that you believe you can run off without taking a care as to how we would react."

This was exactly the kind of conversation she had been hoping to avoid. Blast it, she _did_ need someone with her. She _did_ need someone to stand by her and hold her hand, because she couldn't do this alone. She needed someone that would sarcastically respond to her father in a way that would make him recoil in shock of how a lowly Water Tribe peasant would dare to address him, the head of the Bei Fong family.

She needed someone that would smile and make a bad joke about food. Someone that had been with her to take her hand and bring her along when her blindness got in the way of her keeping up.

But he wasn't here right now.

"Sorry." Even to her own ears, it didn't sound sincere. Her parents noticed this, as well.

"We cannot ignore the fact that you have run away from home, Toph," her father went on wearily. "You may have helped the Avatar and his friends to end the war – and we are very grateful and proud of you for that, do not doubt it – but you are still our daughter, and you still belong to us."

He was going to say it. Oh, _no_ , he was going to say it.

"But your punishment will have to wait, my dear. When we arrive back home, we have some new possible suitors for you to meet. I daresay that you will be pleased with our choices – "

There were too many things in those three sentences to address at once.

Punishment. Punishment for what, helping to save the world? Punishment for making a name for herself, making other people proud of her in a way that her parents had never noticed? Punishment for being herself? Punishment for learning to fly?

And suitors. She was only _twelve_. Two years over a decade, and her monthly bleeding had only just begun but a few months ago – she wasn't ready for suitors. For _marriage_. She wasn't ready to be tied down to some pompous windbag that would run off to be a famous earthbender and lock her up in a mansion with fancy outfits and pretty jewelry and suitors at her beck and call –

No, she didn't want that life again.

"And so your mother and I have decided that, as soon as your body has turned into that of a woman's, you shall be – "

"No."

Even she was surprised at her direct bluntness. As her father stuttered out a startled, "Pardon – ?" she cut him off again.

"No, I'm not going back there," she said firmly, trying to sound more confident than she felt at the moment. "I'm not going back home just to be stuffed in some big cozy house with laws and rules and people that don't think you're worth anything just because you can't see the way everyone else does – "

"We don't think you're not worth anything, Toph," her mother said calmly and reassuringly.

"No, you don't!" Toph exclaimed, feeling the need to pour this out finally, even if it meant crying, because suddenly she could feel tears slipping down her cheeks; and though they were unexpected and alarming, they were not unwanted anymore. "But all you think I'm good for is marrying off, so that you can get some nice tidy fortune selling your own daughter's hand in marriage to a stupid suitor that won't appreciate me the way my friends do – "

"Toph, do calm yourself," her father demanded. "You are our daughter. And though you may have changed over the past few months, in ways that your mother and I may not approve of, when you return home you will relearn how to behave properly in a civilized beha – "

"And I hate home, too!" Toph said, still ignoring the tears. "I hate who I was, how I was never strong enough to stand up to the both of you and tell you what I was and who I wanted to be…"

"You are our daughter," her father insisted firmly, his voice holding no arguments. "You are of the Bei Fong blood, and you will do as I say. You have lived under my roof, and you will obey my directions, Toph. And as soon as your monthly bleeding begins – "

"It already has," she snapped, "and I don't care what you say or think, but I'm not going to throw away my freedom to some stupid _suitor_ just because I'm old enough to have kids."

Her father began to say something else, but she cut him off again.

"I'm going to stay where people appreciate me," she said in a more reasonable tone, having expressed most of her anger out in the tears and shouts. "I'm going to stay with my _friends_ , because they know that just because I'm blind it doesn't mean I can't be worth something aside from a stupid _wife_."

And with that, she turned around and stalked to the doorway.

Toph could feel her father rise to his feet. "Toph Bei Fong," he began angrily. "Young lady, you will come back here and we will settle this dispute between us in a calm and reasonable ma – " **  
**

But she ignored him, and, within seconds, had departed from the room, leaving her parents to stare at the doorway long after she had gone.

* * *

He found her in the garden.

"Zuko says you don't have to go," Sokka said quietly.

Toph said nothing. She continued throwing bread pieces she had stolen from the kitchen to the ducks, trying to ignore the feeling of tears drying on her cheeks.

"He says that you can stay in the Fire Nation palace, and that he'll have tutors and such to help you with all of the studies you'd have learned back home…" Sokka stopped talking, and after a moment, joined her on the grass. "And it's not like the teachers aren't up to standards or anything, 'cause they taught him when he was a kid and all." He paused. "Though we may have to worry about you becoming a crazed pyromaniac or something, because they also taught Azula, and if you look at how the two of them turned out…"

"They wanted to marry me off," Toph said quietly.

"They – what?"

"They said they'd take me home and get me married off to some suitor that they'd already picked out…"

"Someone you'd never met?"

"Yeah." She thew another bread crumb into the pond.

Sokka didn't speak for a moment. "You don't have to go back."

"I know." She swallowed the new wave of emotions that swelled up within her.

"And you know we're going to do everything we can to make sure you stay," he assured her. "Me and Aang and Katara and Suki – and even Zuko, I guess – we're all going to fight to keep you here, Toph. You know that, don't you?"

She raised her head, facing her head toward where she suspected his eyes might be. "Why?"

He seemed a bit startled. "Why? What do you mean, 'why'?" He gave an odd sort of laugh, though there was obviously no humor in it. "Because you're family, Toph. You're with us now."

Toph nodded, and before she could respond she felt arms. Strong forearms wrapping around her small body, while a gentle hand tucked her head into a warm chest.

It felt weird and awkward. Her body was pressed against his in an uncomfortable way, twisting her torso as her shoulder bumped into his neck. But she pressed her face closer to Sokka, a lowly peasant of the Southern Water Tribe, someone her parents would never approve of her wedding, because he didn't think of her as someone to showcase in a large house and sell off to the highest bidder.

Because Sokka knew that material things weren't the only thing that mattered, and what might seem useless and weak on the outside might actually be worth something, deep down.

Because Sokka knew how to appreciate her.

One of her hands ended up at the back of Sokka's neck, holding onto him firmly and quietly. She could feel a pulse beneath her finger, a small sort of heartbeat. It was fast, like her own, and she took comfort in that, oddly. She pressed her finger down and felt his head drop a little in response. She held on.


End file.
